Summary: Headhunters are much like recruiters in that they approach highly skilled people to help companies fill specific job roles.
Headhunters can improve the efficiency of a company’s recruitment process. Here we explain best practices for engaging headhunters.
Headhunter
A headhunter is a recruitment specialist who seeks out highly qualified candidates for executive and high-level positions within organizations. They often work on behalf of companies to fill roles that require specific expertise or experience. This means they are frequently used in industries with a high level of competition for top talent.
The name “headhunter” suggests a difference from regular recruiters. Normally, recruiters hire for positions of all sorts and target people who are currently unemployed, new to working, or actively looking for new jobs. They’re also frequently internal to their organizations. Headhunters, on the other hand, are usually contracted and work on a contingency, getting paid when they fill positions. They often target people who are already employed. Frequently, these recruitment specialists offer specific incentives to lure talent away from their current jobs. This term developed from both reducing other employers’ headcounts and recruiting their head employees away. While the term may sound negative and suggest illegal or underhanded techniques might be used by headhunters, the reality is that they can only offer incentives to attract employees away from their employers.
Benefits of Using a Headhunter
For companies looking to hire the best and brightest talent possible, working with a headhunter is often an effective strategy. The advantages of using a headhunter include:
- Solving a lack of internal resources: Many organizations simply don’t have the human resources (HR) staff to dedicate to top-level recruitment searches. Startups especially often work with a single HR generalist who must handle hiring, payroll, contracts, benefits, and more. When they need to find top talent, it makes sense for them to hire a specialized recruiter or headhunter who can offer them professional services on a contractual basis.
- Access to a wider talent pool: Most headhunters maintain relationships with a wide range of high-quality candidates whom they may have placed in jobs previously or keep in their talent pools. It’s a headhunter’s job to be well-connected and to find candidates in a hurry so organizations that hire them can leverage their connections to hire well and quickly when they need to fill their top positions.
- Expertise in specific industries: Most headhunters aren’t generalists who can recruit business executives as easily as they can find software engineering managers. Instead, they typically specialize in one or a few select industries. Because of this specialization, they normally have extensive connections and also knowledge of the qualities, characteristics, and experience needed to fill related positions. Organizations should work with headhunters who are specialized in their industries for the best results.
- Screening candidates: Headhunters are concerned with finding the very best individuals for a job, not simply those who are qualified. To this end, they will pre-screen candidates and normally interview them to judge their fit for the job and the company culture of the employer. Only then do they put the very best candidates forward to the employer, increasing their chances of a successful hire.
Challenges and Considerations in Working with Headhunters
While working with headhunters can be highly beneficial, it’s not without its challenges. These include:
- Costs and fees: Most headhunters will charge commissions of 20-30% of an employee’s first-year salary for any successful recruitment. They may also work on a retainer, asking for a (non-refundable) amount to help with the costs of recruitment. These costs are usually substantial but may be worth it for many businesses.
- Ensuring alignment with company culture and goals: As headhunters are nearly always external service providers, they may not have the best understanding of the goals and culture of a company. This can make it hard for them to find candidates that best align with these organizational features.
- Retention: Headhunters work to gain their commissions from employers. As such, they may hurry to fill vacancies and may not take enough time to ensure that their candidates’ goals and expectations are going to be well met. This can sometimes lead to churn with employees leaving sooner than expected.
Best Practices for Engaging Headhunters
Choosing an executive search recruiter or headhunter can be difficult. It’s important for organizations to look at the headhunter’s track record, not only for filling vacancies but also for the retention rates for their hires. Professional headhunters should have good strategies for effective collaboration with their clients. They should be proactive in meeting with them and exchanging information to get the very best understanding of their clients’ needs. Finally, organizations should calculate their budgets carefully and choose to work with headhunters they can afford.
Headhunters Are Top-Level Recruiters
Headhunters usually work on commission to fill the top jobs that companies have on offer. They use their wide-ranging connections and industry expertise to recruit top talent quickly. While their fees are high, they’re normally worth it for organizations looking for the best of the best, especially in highly competitive industries in which top talent is highly sought-after.
FAQ
Most headhunters build talent pools by meeting with and collecting resumes from hundreds of qualified workers. They can also talk to their wide range of contacts in an industry in which they may have successfully placed several hires. These connections help them fill vacancies quickly and effectively. Occasionally, they may also use more common recruitment methods like online job postings.
Headhunters normally work for recruitment agencies which charge commissions and sometimes retainers to defer their costs as well. Employers should expect to pay a commission of around 20% of an employee’s first year salary to the headhunter. This can rise to 30 or even 40% for headhunters who fill the highest executive positions in highly competitive industries.
Authors:
Marcel is an experienced journalist and Public Relations expert with an honours degree in Journalism and bylines with a range of major brands.